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“That’s exactly what I am going to do, dear. You be safe,” she says, walking quickly back to her house.
“I will, and enjoy your book,” I respond back before getting into my car.
Maine winters can be brutal with the cold, snow, and wind, but I couldn’t imagine wanting to be anywhere else.
I turn the radio up and sing along to the song as I continue making the drive to the gym. Walking in, Christmas music is playing through the speakers, reminding me we only have two weeks left. Two weeks until Christmas and Leia’s wedding. I sign in and make my way to the locker room to store my belongings before hitting the treadmill.
My mind goes back to last week, helping Leia pick out wedding cake flavors and design.
“Welcome to Galore Cakes, can I help you?” the lady at the counter asks as we walk in.
“Yes, I have an appointment for a wedding cake,” Leia tells her.
“Are you Leia Stone?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Perfect, we have everything ready for you, please take a seat, and I’ll bring out the samples.”
“Thank you,” Leia says as we both go to the table.
We take our seats, and Leia looks at me, “Thank you for coming to do this with me.”
“Of course. I would never let you do this alone. Noah still working on the case?”
“Yes. I hope he can close it before our wedding. I don’t want this to be on his mind when we are supposed to be on our honeymoon.”
“Has he told you where you are going yet?”
“No,” she says, shaking her head and looking sad.
“I’m sure he has it planned,” I tell her.
“Maybe,” she says with a shrug, not sounding confident.
“Here we go Ms. Stone. These are our Christmas Wedding flavors, here we have a Chocolate Matcha Pair, it’s a rich, dark chocolate cake with the nutty flavors of matcha icing. This is our Chocolate Hazelnut Truffle, the cake itself is a chocolate cake filled with mocha buttercream and chocolate ganache. Here we have a Spiced Carrot with White Chocolate Buttercream, it’s paired with white chocolate buttercream between the layers. This is our signature White Butter Cake with Eggnog Custard and Spiced Buttercream, this is a traditional wedding cake with buttercream, but for the holidays we add eggnog and baking spices. This one is a Salted Caramel Banana, although this combo isn’t exclusively seasonal, it’s a richer flavor that’s winter-appropriate for a wedding. This is also another signature cake of ours, Dark Chocolate with White Chocolate Peppermint Buttercream, this pairing the dark chocolate with white chocolate and peppermint seems like the perfect combination for a winter wedding. Finally, we have the Brown Butter Spice Cake with Cream Cheese and Maple Buttercream, this is a brown butter spice cake, frosted with cream cheese and maple sugar buttercream fillings. If none of these meet your needs let me know, I have a few more other samples in the back I can bring out.”
“Thank you so much,” Leia replies.
“Where do you want to start?” I ask.
“Let’s start with the White Butter Cake with Eggnog Custard and Spiced Buttercream,” she suggests.
We both take a bite, and immediately I need a drink of water. The spice level is very intense, and I can’t help the cough that comes over me.
“What the hell is that?” I sputter in a whisper, drinking more water. I look over and see Leia is not a fan of it either.
“I don’t know, but it’s a definite no for me,” she says, drinking her own water.
We look over the rest of the table, and then she says, “I’m a little nervous to try the dark chocolate with white chocolate peppermint buttercream.”
“I understand. If the other is any indication of their signature cakes, I’m very nervous to try any of these.”
We take the chance though and get a little taste of the dark chocolate with white chocolate peppermint buttercream, and it wasn’t bad. It was more enjoyable than eggnog and spiced whatever.
By the time we finished the tasting, she made her choice. Some of the cakes were awful, and some were good or at least okay, and thankfully she went with the best one, Brown Butter Spice Cake with Cream Cheese and Maple Buttercream. Hopefully Noah remembers to order his groom cake.
I get pulled from my thoughts with the ringing of my phone in my ear. I see Leia’s name come across my screen. I stop the treadmill and hit the Bluetooth in my ear to answer.
